South Africa came close to topple the world champions in the ICC rankings but they will have to demonstrate stability to lay serious claim to Australian pre-eminence, as will India
South Africa came close to toppling the world champions in the ICC rankings but they will have to demonstrate stability to lay serious claim to Australian pre-eminence, as will India
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How apt, how absolutely befitting for the memorable South Africa-Australia series to have ended the electrifying way it did at the famous Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday.
Coming on the heels of the smorgasbord of delectable cricket served up by Mahendra Dhoni's Test team against Australia and England at home recently, this series has signalled a grand victory for Test cricket and provided a resounding rebuttal to the gloomy prognosis of doomsayers, who had pronounced Test cricket all but dead in the face of the onslaught from slam-bang-thank-you-ma'm one-day and Twenty20 cricket.
That this Sydney Test should have been decided, after being on a needle edge for most of the last session, was eminently reminiscent of India's last and contentious encounter with the world champions at this very ground at the same time last year, when they famously conceded defeat in the penultimate over of the pulsating Test.
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Yesterday's finish was very much in keeping with the overall tantalising proceedings in the fiercely, but decorously, fought three-Test series between the two best teams in the world, all of which ended in thrilling
manner in the very last session.
With the world Test championship title at stake, every conceivable potboiler ingredient was on view in the series.
And what a Greek tragedy climax it produced yesterday: Captain Courageous Graeme Smith, batting in excruciating pain with cast removed from forearm and bandage from little finger perishing in an epic mortal combat in a dead rubber in a bid to return home unvanquished.
Then there was an embattled Ricky Ponting, engaging in fierce conflict to avoid a humiliating whitewash, rallying his depleted troops, some with experience of battle but not of war, after injuries and crippling retirements of his most trusted and battle-hardened lieutenants.
Dropped catches
There were incredible dropped catches at crucial stages: memorable batting and bowling displays, notably by virtuosos Graeme Smith, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, Michael Clarke, Simon Katich, AB deVilliers, Mark Boucher (and Makhaya Ntini!), even as the redoubtable Matthew Hayden, Michael 'Mr Cricket' Hussey, Brett Lee, Neil McKenzie and Andrew Symonds failed to come up to scratch.
New reputations were made, conspicuously by Mitchell Johnson and Dale Steyn as potentially exciting all-rounders, by Hashim Amla, Jean-Paul Duminy and Brad Haddin as batsmen of world class and by Morne Morkel and Peter Siddle as bowlers with potential to leave their footprints on the sands of cricketing time.
If truth be told, the margins of South Africa's victories (by four wickets at Perth and six at Melbourne) are misleading in that they do not accurately reflect the remarkable ebbs and flows in the absorbing series.
However, there can be no denying that the Proteas were deserving winners, that they played in exemplary sporting fashion and that they conducted themselves in victory with commendable dignity.
Credit must also go to the home side, hitherto notorious for its unabashed larrykinism in the name of mental disintegration of the opposition, for its exceedingly sporting conduct.
The prompt and effective disciplinary measures taken by Cricket Australia to stamp out unbecoming behaviour after last year's bitter series against India has, obviously, had a salutary effect. This is something the BCCI needs to do post haste in the conduct of its affairs.
That said, playing together in the Indian Premier League has obviously dispelled chauvinism, mellowed hostility and, generally, made for camarederie among players of different countries.
Fractional
South Africa failed but only fractionally to topple the imperious Australians from the pedestal they have occupied for 14 long years.
But unqualified credit is due to skipper Graeme Smith, coach Mickey Arthur and the team's management and support staff for the manner in which they welded a young multiracial team, with the weight of recent ethnic strife on its shoulders, and the stigma of unending over-earnest but eccentric performances on tour, into a fearsome fighting unit.
On balance, the current world Test rankings, with Australia fractionally ahead of South Africa, appear equitable.
Although intrepid South Africa came close to toppling the world champions in the ICC rankings, they will have to demonstrate consistency to lay serious claim to Australian pre-eminence, as will India, if they hope to scale Test cricket's Everest from their present No 3 position.
POSTSCRIPT:
Graeme Smith, who arrived at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday unprepared to take the field yesterday morning, had to borrow a shirt from Jacques Kallis and a pullover from Paul Harris in order to bat.
"I had Morne (Morkel) dressing me and putting my shoes and pads . I didn't really want to get out there," Smith said after his heroic effort that was reminiscent of Anil Kumble at Antigua (West Indies) in 2002, when he battled bravely with a bandaged broken jaw.
"I decided to go out there and give it my best shot, and if I got a first-baller or whatever, at least I tried.
"Obviously there is a lot of pain. I have had injections in my elbow and obviously the hand is not very friendly at the moment."
The Melbourne specialist who injected his (Smith's) own blood into his elbow last Monday believes Smith's brave act could seriously affect his chances of playing in the Johannesburg Test against Australia on February 28.
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